It didn’t take long for Robin Lynne Andersen to realize something was terribly amiss with her son.

The first night after Navy SEAL Team 5 member Robert Bryan Guzzo came home from his deployment to Ramadi, Iraq, he opened up to his mother about what he had experienced. It was clear during that evening at his uncle’s home in Poway that an individual who had left for the Middle East brimming with enthusiasm had returned traumatized.

“They were horrific things,” Andersen said. “That’s all I can share. The information is classified.”

More than five years later, Guzzo’s struggle with post-traumatic stress disorder as a result of his combat experience ended in his adopted hometown of San Diego when the 33-year-old shot himself in the early morning hours of Nov. 12.

Andersen, who served 30 years in the Navy, and Guzzo’s father, retired Navy SEAL Robert John Guzzo, are now on a public campaign to raise awareness about PTSD. Aside from media interviews, Andersen said she and other family members hope to address Congress and speak individually with Congress members about ways to help veterans with the condition.

“I really don’t think the general population understands what these people are going through,” the elder Guzzo said.

Military suicides hit a record high in 2012, with nearly one active-duty service member killing himself every day, according to figures obtained this month by The Associated Press. Last year, 349 active-duty service members killed themselves, a 16 percent rise over the previous year.

Those figures don’t include former service members, such as Guzzo, and they don’t differentiate between those afflicted with PTSD and those who may have committed suicide for other reasons.

By the time Guzzo deployed for Iraq in October 2006, he had already lost two friends to the war in the previous two months. During the first week after his return in April 2007, his mother said there was a stark difference in his demeanor.

“He was like a walking zombie, and he was very hyper-aware,” Andersen said.

She urged her son to seek help. She said Guzzo had been led to believe that if he did, he would be viewed as weak and would risk losing his security clearance. When his problems persisted, Andersen said her son was advised to keep his issues to himself, and he would visit Navy medical staff members “off the record.”

The Navy’s Special Warfare Command responded in a statement that it actively campaigns to de-stigmatize reporting of PTSD and encourages reporting of any battlefield stress, without negative career effects.

“We won’t confirm speculation on how people might have been ‘improperly counseled’ by uninformed personnel in the past. That certainly was not official policy at the time, nor is it policy today,” the statement reads.

Andersen connected Guzzo with a civilian therapist, whom the SEAL went to see for nearly a year, she said. First, he went twice a week, then once a week, then every other week and finally once a month.

During the first year after his return, Andersen said her son would call crying and distraught nearly every night.